Lith Printing - Foma Fomatome MC FB - your advice please

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

I'm lith printing using Fomatone warmtone FB paper and using LD20 developer at college, 50ml with 950ml of water for both bottle A and B. I am not getting the bigger grains I am looking for, apart from the infectious development type of grains which I do like but which is causing overexposure in parts of the images. The warm tone is producing too much yellow/brown in some images having experimented with no filters (paper is filter 2 contrast) and filter set at 3.5, which is better for me. Can you suggest a better developer or it is merely caused by the warm tone paper itself, it seems a bit too much to be correct. I wish to make it a bit colder. I am also interested to dry Dektol paper developer for what I understand produces a charcoal, drawing like effect. What's the best paper developer please? Thanks

Slixtiesix · May 21, 2008

Hi Carmenloofah,
the foma paper is an excellent choice for lith-printing!
For coarse grain, try to overexpose and slightly underdevelop the prints.
The developers Mr. Wolfang Moersch sells are well suited, they might be
available in the UK. He offers a simple lith developer ("Easylith"), and
a more sophisticate developer kit that allows you to set all parameters
by the included chemicals. He also has some usefull information about
lith printing at all on his webiste, just scroll to the bottom of the page:

http://www.moersch-photochemie.com/daten/knowhow.htm

btw: I personally never read it, but "The Master Photographers Lith Printing Book" by Tim Rudman
is often recommended for people who are seriously interested in lith-printing.
cheers

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

thank you very much, I have tried what you suggest

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

Tetenal Gold Toner may be the answer....

Andrew Moxom · May 21, 2008

You could try diluting your developer more. Fomatone really opens up with more dilute developer. It starts to go more peachy/pink the longer it sits in the soup. This will mean more experimentation, with exposure and likely longer development times though. Although some people might not think it makes a difference, I have also found that playing with the VC filters can impact the overall image as well. I find moving to the harder grades can force larger can give you more control over the final image rather than just relying on infectious development.

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

great thanks Andrew, what dilution would you suggest? I think I will only have LD20 developer to work with.

Andrew Moxom · May 21, 2008

It sounds like you are using 25ml of A and 25ml of B to 950ml of total water. I would change that to say 25 of A to 750ml of water, and 25 ml of B to 750ml of water. Try that. Also make sure you dev temp is a little warmer.... say 75 to 80 degrees. That should get you to a dev time of around 6 to 10 minutes depending on exposure. If you use regular temp, dev time will increase, but will yield pinker more salmony tones.

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

Sorry, I am using 50ml of A with 950ml of water and then adding 50ml of B with further 950ml of water. I then add a splash of old lith developer (i.e the previous day's), just because someone told me it was a good idea....

Andrew Moxom · May 21, 2008

Okay, reduce the amount of lith dev you put into the mix. put say 30ml of both A and B with your total 1900ML of water and try that as a starting point. Include the 'old brown' as well.

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

many thanks....I look forward to trying both cooler and warmer temperatures too....

Andrew Moxom · May 21, 2008

Just out of curiosity, what dev times are you getting with your current dilution and process?

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

around 4-6 minutes with constant gentle agitation after up to 4 to 5 minutes exposure, using filer 3.5...

Andrew Moxom · May 21, 2008

Okay, your dev time will definitely need to increase to release the pinker tones of fomatone MG. The dilution I gave you should be a good starting point and you can tweak it from there. I've found that after 10 to 12 minutes, the tones can change quite a bit. They can be even better with longer dev time. It all depends on how patient you can be.

carmenloofah · May 21, 2008

or could I open up 4 stops....I will try both, my first test is with ordinary developer and my paper to gain a time estimate then I open up the aperture from f16 to f5.6 and use the same test time with lith developer....I think I need to overexpose further still...

Rich Ullsmith · May 21, 2008

Your 50ml A+50ml B+ 2L water is exactly what I use. I do use much more old brown, up to half the total solution. 1/2 tsp sodium sulfite, and no bromide (there should be plenty in the old brown). You can always dilute down with hot water.

If you are using a condenser head, take you contrast filter out, as all it really does is increase exposure times for MG papers.

I think it's more expeditious to start with a 90 second exposure and work from there. Using a test strip in conventional developer, sometimes it's useful and just as often it's not, and no clue as to why it was or was not helpful. Quicker to take a guess!

carmenloofah · May 22, 2008

roll on tomorrow! thanks!

carmenloofah · Jun 4, 2008

I have been working with Foma Fomatone and love the range of colours possible and the texture of the paper...I have now ran out and have tried Forte Bromoforte and the differences are amazing, I do not like this paper but do find that it is far more predictable....I look forward to trying other papers....

Lith Printing - Foma Fomatome MC FB - your advice please

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